Our co-founder Armina Rosenberg spoke with Nikkei Asia about Nvidia-backed data centre developer Firmus withdrawing its planned ASX listing. Firmus had aimed to raise up to AU$7.9 billion at a valuation of AU$43.9 billion, which would have made it Australia's second-largest IPO after Telstra's 1997 listing. Like several other fund managers and analysts quoted in the article, we viewed the pricing as stretched, particularly as much of the planned data centre rollout was yet to be built.
As Armina explained:
"The offer was too rich for a company with 46 megawatts built out of 912 MW contracted."
She added:
"Almost all the contracted revenue sits on sites that don't exist yet. Most of the debt for the Asian sites wasn't committed."
Armina expects Firmus to prioritise its Asian sites, given its contracts with OpenAI and Meta, while slowing its uncontracted Australian pipeline. Firmus cited market volatility and prevailing conditions for the withdrawal, and now plans to pursue private capital and consider alternative listing options; the Australian Financial Review reports it is looking at Nasdaq.
As other investors in the piece noted, the outcome reflects valuation discipline rather than lost confidence in AI infrastructure. A compelling theme and high-profile backers don't remove the need to scrutinise valuation, funding and execution risk, and the gap between contracted capacity and what has actually been built is often where the real story lies.
To read the article, click the link below.